Indiana Pacers forward Thaddeus Young (21) knocks the ball away from Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) in the second half of game #3 of their NBA Eastern Conference playoff game on Friday April 20, 2018. The Indiana Pacers defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 92-90.(Photo: Matt Kryger/IndyStar)Buy Photo

INDIANAPOLIS – Bojan Bogdanovic was shooting it from 26 feet, then 28 feet, then 30. He was shooting with nobody near him and with J.R. Smith all over him and even with Kyle Korver crashing into him. He was shooting shots and quietly running back down the court, and then he was shooting shots and roaring in triumph, a postseason shooting display we’ve seen once before around here, from a guy everyone calls Reggie. And on Friday night in Game 3 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers forward Bojan Bogdanovic was doing what Reggie Miller did back in that 1995 miracle against the New York Knicks:

He was making every damn one of them.

Bogdanovic scored 15 of his game-high 30 points in a 6½-minute stretch of the fourth quarter, turning this game around and the 2018 NBA playoffs on its head – leading the Pacers to a stunning 92-90 victory, giving them a 2-1 series edge and putting them halfway toward eliminating LeBron James in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Before we say another word about Bogdanovic, and I’ve got so much more to say about that guy, let’s give some credit way up high in this story to Thaddeus Young, who was obliterated in Game 2 by LeBron James’ 16-point onslaught to open the game – but rallied in Game 3. Bogdanovic broke this game wide open, but it was Young who made his heroics possible with back-to-back defensive stands against LeBron. The first one happened with 6:18 to play and the score tied at 77 and LeBron at midcourt with the ball, isolated with Young after a switch, looking at Young the way a lion might look at an antelope.

But what’s this? The antelope is attacking the lion, Young coming to midcourt to meet LeBron, moving his feet and clawing at the ball and joined for a moment by Bogdanovic himself. At one point LeBron looked to the referee for help, but he was on his own – and two days after destroying Young in Game 3, LeBron found himself surrounded by one man, backed up by Young to the halfcourt stripe and trying not to fall over it and losing his balance and being called for traveling.

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Bogdanovic key in Pacers win.
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LeBron was still gesturing angrily at the referee when Pacers guard Victor Oladipo attacked the rim, saw Bogdanovic on the right wing and threw him the ball. Bogey catches it and rises and Cavs guard Kyle Korver is closing out on him but a little late, inches short, and the ball is floating toward the rim, which it won’t touch on its way down, as Korver is banging into him.

Four-point play. Four-point lead, the Pacers’ biggest to date.

Oh, but it was about to get bigger. Because Thad Young was about to make another defensive play on LeBron, and on George Hill, and on the whole Cleveland offense. That’s how good Young’s defense was on the next Cavs possession, which began with LeBron sizing up Young –still the lion, still unimpressed with the antelope – and now the lion is charging and Young is moving his feet and staying in front of LeBron, all the way into the lane, where the lion realizes he can’t shake this antelope and so LeBron passes to George Hill.

And Thaddeus Young, he just keeps moving his feet, coasting over to Hill on the baseline, harassing him now, forcing Hill to pass the ball and then just taking it from him.

Five seconds later, Bogdanovic is alone in the corner for a 3-pointer that is pure, giving the Pacers an 84-77 lead.

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Indiana Pacers forward Thaddeus Young (21) knocks the ball away from Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) in the second half of game #3 of their NBA Eastern Conference playoff game on Friday April 20, 2018. The Indiana Pacers defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 92-90. (Photo: Matt Kryger/IndyStar)

“That was amazing,” is how Pacers point guard Darren Collison was describing Bogdanovic’s fourth-quarter explosion. “He’s a great, great shooter.”

Bogdanovic wasn’t done, of course. Have I described 15 points? I have not. Earlier he’d hit a wide-open 3-pointer, getting lost behind a Domantas Sabonis screen to draw the Pacers within 75-73. That was the closest they’d been to Cleveland since the first quarter, with the Pacers playing a mostly desultory offensive game and the Cavaliers building their lead to 57-40 at halftime and playing with a 10-point margin throughout the third quarter.

But then Bogdanovic happened, and kept happening, and happened for the final time with 2:26 left. Bogey already had scored 12 points in about six minutes, but clearly it was time for a heat check, so he fired from 31 feet and made the damn thing and the crowd is going nuts in a happy way, in stark contrast to the fury with which it booed the referees off the court at halftime, and Bogdanovic is hooting and hollering in route to the Pacers bench because this is his moment and he knows it.

After closing the season on the hottest prolonged streak of his career, averaging 16.5 ppg and shooting 45 percent on 3-pointers in the final 30 games, Bogdanovic was ineffective on offense in the series’ first two games: 11.5 ppg, 34.8 percent from the floor overall (8-for-23) and 22.2 percent on 3-pointers (2-for-9). But on Friday night he was 11-for-15 from the floor and 7-for-9 on 3-pointers, tying the franchise postseason record for 3-pointers set in 1991 by Chuck Person and tied twice by Reggie Miller (1995, 2000) and once by Paul George (2014).

The Pacers needed every bit of Bogdanovic’s barrage, because after doing it to open Game 2, LeBron pulled another LeBron late in Game 3 – scoring 12 straight Cleveland points down the stretch, including back-to-back 3-pointers to answer the same from Bogdanovic, cutting the Pacers’ lead from 84-77 to 84-83. The second one had the Cavs bench giggling and the Pacers crowd groaning, because it was happening again, right? The Pacers are the better team, from top to bottom, but the Cavs have LeBron – and for years that’s been enough, as it was in Game 2 when LeBron scored 46 points to carry his dead-weight supporting cast to victory. A little later, when LeBron stubbed his sneaker and lost his balance and fell forward and flung another 3-pointer through the rim, Bankers Life Fieldhouse went completely silent.

But soon it was screaming, because Darren Collison was making one free throw with five seconds left and fortunately missing the second, forcing the Cavs into one last, unscripted – and terrible – final shot: J.R. Smith’s 40-footer. The heave wasn't close, bouncing in the direction of Pacers owner Herb Simon and executive Donnie Walsh and the man sitting behind them, Larry Bird, who was watching a Pacers franchise that has caught up to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and is two games from leaving them in the rear-view mirror.